Mochi: Pounding Rice
Dec. 29th, 2011 04:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerThis is a seasonal Japanese treat. This morning, one of the daily news hosts was shown at the shelters in Tohoku, happily pounding mochi. What do I mean by that?
Well, let's start with the base. This is usually a large wooden base, like a tree trunk cut off maybe 2 feet high and about that wide, with a large round cavity -- a bowl -- cut in the top. Now, you need a mochi pounding hammer. Take a round piece of wood, maybe 10 inches long and four across, with a rounded end, and add a handle so that you can lift your hammer and then bring it down to pound the mochi in the base. Effectively, an oversized mortar and pestle.
So what is mochi? Sweet rice, steamed so it is soft and sticky. It's a round grain rice specifically grown for this. Steam it so it is soft, then put it in the base, and start pounding. Someone needs to pick up the mochi and fold it over again as it is being pounded, so you need to move quickly and trust the guy with a hammer. And after a while, you will have produced a lump of white sticky mochi. People take the mochi and roll it into small flat balls, or more simply, roll it out flat in a pan and slice it into chunks. Let it dry a little, and you've got mochi.
Toast it until it turns brown and pops open, deep fry it, add it to sweet red bean soup, there are lots of different ways to serve it. I think of it basically as concentrated rice -- I'm pretty sure it's carbohydrates to the max! I actually like it toasted, with some soy sauce, brown sugar, and nori -- dried seaweed. Deep-fried is wonderful, except my wife says my waist does not need it.
Incidentally, you can get a machine to do the pounding -- it uses a thick propeller and a motor. We have one of those, and Mitsuko often invites a friend come over and make mochi. Or you can even buy it in the store.
So if somebody asks you if you want to pound rice, they're probably talking about mochi. Go ahead and try it. Very traditional, and very tasty!
Well, let's start with the base. This is usually a large wooden base, like a tree trunk cut off maybe 2 feet high and about that wide, with a large round cavity -- a bowl -- cut in the top. Now, you need a mochi pounding hammer. Take a round piece of wood, maybe 10 inches long and four across, with a rounded end, and add a handle so that you can lift your hammer and then bring it down to pound the mochi in the base. Effectively, an oversized mortar and pestle.
So what is mochi? Sweet rice, steamed so it is soft and sticky. It's a round grain rice specifically grown for this. Steam it so it is soft, then put it in the base, and start pounding. Someone needs to pick up the mochi and fold it over again as it is being pounded, so you need to move quickly and trust the guy with a hammer. And after a while, you will have produced a lump of white sticky mochi. People take the mochi and roll it into small flat balls, or more simply, roll it out flat in a pan and slice it into chunks. Let it dry a little, and you've got mochi.
Toast it until it turns brown and pops open, deep fry it, add it to sweet red bean soup, there are lots of different ways to serve it. I think of it basically as concentrated rice -- I'm pretty sure it's carbohydrates to the max! I actually like it toasted, with some soy sauce, brown sugar, and nori -- dried seaweed. Deep-fried is wonderful, except my wife says my waist does not need it.
Incidentally, you can get a machine to do the pounding -- it uses a thick propeller and a motor. We have one of those, and Mitsuko often invites a friend come over and make mochi. Or you can even buy it in the store.
So if somebody asks you if you want to pound rice, they're probably talking about mochi. Go ahead and try it. Very traditional, and very tasty!
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-29 07:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-29 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-29 03:38 pm (UTC):)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-31 07:11 pm (UTC)I like mochi, but mostly find it here in soft form, either wrapped around ice cream or bean paste. It is very hard to find it in blocks or squares. I am wondering if this is a regional thing. Perhaps the mochi I see in stores in Denver, US is from a different island or part of Honshu? Or is the toasted variety something specific to the New Year?
no subject
Date: 2012-01-01 02:54 am (UTC)Toasting it? I think everyone does lots of different things with it -- I like it toasted, but it also gets dropped in soup (we had hot soup for New Year's breakfast, and it had a layer of mochi in it). Just personal preference, I think.
The stack of one big, one middle size, and one small round blob is a New Year's decoration.
It's pretty versatile, really.